Page 83 of Celestial Bodies

Souzie began wielding her wind projectiles, but nothing could break through.

The lights dimmed as the loss of oxygen siphoned the life force from Dacias’s body. Julen’s expression twitched with hateful glee, and his teeth clenched into a vicious smile. Dacias took one last look at his love, forgiving the body that would take his life, knowing the soul would never have done such a thing. He mouthed a final goodbye.

Then, a shocked expression rippled across Julen’s face. His eyes widenedwith a look of terror. Julen’s mouth fell open as if to scream, but nothing came out. The blackness in his eyes began to drain. Julen’s face looked up, and Dacias stared into the green eyes he had loved so much as he lost consciousness.

Julen

“Dacias!”

The wind around Dacias’s neck vanished with a flick of Julen’s hand. He halted the storm and formed a bed of wind beneath Dacias to break his fall, running to his side. Dacias gasped for breath.

“I’m so sorry! I’m so sorry,” Julen cried. “It wasn’t me. I wasn’t me…”

Julen wiped Dacias’s face as he kissed his forehead.

Haligran’s voice tore through the room. “Carnufor! What happened?”

His father’s voice jolted Julen out of his confusion. “You!”

Julen extended his hand, summoning the wind he needed to end this motherfucker once and for all. Instead of wind, he released a thick tendril of purple mist, with a bolt of neon lavender lightning streaking through the center that whipped wildly about the space before striking a guardian and incinerating him.

What in the Mother Planet wasthat?

The wind barrier that Haligran manifested fell as he gaped at his son, and Souzie immediately shot a boulder of wind that just missed Haligran. The second guardian shot a wind shard, sharp as an arrow, directly at Souzie.

Julen watched as it sailed across the room, headed straight for his friend. He stretched his arms forward, and the force of his magic sailed through his veins, gathered at his fingertips, and emerged as an impenetrable wall of lavender clouds that erected itself in front of Souzie, protecting her from the shard.

He couldn’t believe what was happening. His power wasn’t coming from the wind; it was coming fromwithinhim. He’d think what he wanted to do, move his hands or arms to shape the magic, and it would release from his fingertips, tickling his cuticles as it emerged.

Julen turned back to see that Haligran, Carnufor, and the other guardian were gone.Where? A secret passage?

“No!” Julen yelled. “Fight me, you coward!”

“Julen!” Souzie ran to his side. “By the Mother Planet, what the fuck is going on? What happened to you? And what arethose!”

Souzie pointed to the motionless monsters with black eyes standing in a line against the wall.

“Are they a threat?” Klorin asked.

A shriek echoed through the room, and they turned to see Anjular’s body approaching them. Her face twisted into his father’s contemptuous smirk.

Oh no.Julen knew this meant his father possessed her. He spoke to the fae as if he were speaking to his father. “Don’t you dare hurt them!” He turned and said to his friends, “Run! It’s him. It’s my fa—”

Anjular spoke in a horrible mix of her voice and Haligran’s. “How did you do it? How did you break free?”

Anjular pressed her fingers to her temples, and the room began to quake. Julen knew she could read minds and said in the dungeon that it was just a glimpse of what she could do. There was a reason Haligran kidnapped a child fae; her power must be enormous, and Julen readied himself for whatever hell Haligran would unleash.

The ceiling above rattled at the force of Anjular’s power, and a mass of stone broke free and began plummeting toward the group. Julen released a canopy of vapor that caught hold of the massive stone. The energy he used to keep the stone from falling made his muscles burn and his head throb.

Anjular closed her eyes and began flinging metal carts, gurneys, and syringes at the group. Julen built a wind barrier to protect himself and his friends.

Exhaustion consumed him as he tried to hold up the massive stone and block the objects. His instinct told him to clench his right hand. He shifted the focus of his power to his left, steadying the falling rock and fortifying the wall. When he opened his clenched right fist, an amethyst orb shimmered inside. Julen could feel its power, like a magnet pulling at his core.

It levitated from his hand, and dark clouds swirled about it.Lightning struck from the clouds as if he had manifested a tiny planet. He released it.

The orb shot at Anjular and lodged itself in her chest. She uttered a piercing scream as the orb released lightning bolts illuminating her body. Then, it began spinning wildly, and the blackness of her eyes started to drain. She convulsed as the orb continued absorbing the poison inside her.

In moments, it released itself, leaving no trace of where it had hit, and soared back to Julen, who caught it with his hand. It melted into him, his veins absorbing the blackness it had just extracted from the fae’s body.

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